As our time in England looks more and more limited, I feel like I have to check off items from my England bucket list. Last week’s visit to Cambridge was one big check. On Saturday, Michael and I checked off another item – Blenheim Palace.

Blenheim Palace

Located a few miles from Oxford, Blenheim Palace is probably best known as the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Built in the early 18th century, this historic home is the seat of the Duke of Marlborough. The current (11th) Duke and Duchess of Marlborough live in one wing of the palace. John Churchill was the first Duke of Marlborough; Winston Churchill’s grandfather was the 7th Duke of Marlborough.

Michael and I walked a bit through the gardens, though there was much more to see than we had time for. We then toured the state rooms of the palace. Portraits of Consuelo Vanderbilt, who married and later divorced the 9th Duke of Marlborough, are seen throughout the house. It was not uncommon for wealthy, young American women to marry into British nobility in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. The extra money must have come in handy to maintain these enormous estates. Winston Churchill’s mother was also American.

More photos from the gardens:

This last photo shows a copy of an ancient Roman sculpture, The Dying Gaul, also known as The Dying Gladiator. A copy of this sculpture is also at the Redwood Library in Newport, Rhode Island.

After our tour of Blenheim Palace, Michael and I drove out to the Cotswolds to visit some of the picturesque villages. Though crocuses and some daffodils were beginning to bloom, these villages must be especially beautiful at the height of the growing season. We stopped at a few villages, including:

St. Michael's Church in Stanton

Stanton: Here we walked around, stopping at St. Michael’s church and climbing the hill to enjoy the views.

St. Michael's church interior, Stanton

View over Stanton

Stanway House, which is open to visitors during the summer

Stanway: We stopped here briefly, but the manor house (pictured above) and the church were closed. However, we met a friendly Brit, who suggested that we stop at the medieval church in Hailes to see some restored frescoes.

Hailes: We followed his advice. Interesting frescoes. One showed a hunting scene, with a rabbit cowering before some dogs!

Hailes Church, consecrated in 1175

St. Catherine of Alexandria

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Lower Slaughter: This picturesque village is located on a little river, where we enjoyed feeding the ducks. And we couldn’t finish our beautiful day in the country without a cup of tea and yummy scones.

The UK is known as a constitutional monarchy. Unlike the US, its constitution is unwritten. The balance of power between the monarch and Parliament has evolved over time and is governed by various agreements, laws, and rulings rather than one all encompassing document. We learned this on an informative tour of the Houses of Parliament last Saturday.

This place is dripping with history, in every nook and cranny. Officially, it is known as the Palace of Westminster, and the first palace goes back to the days of King Edward the Confessor in the mid-11th century. Although much of the palace was rebuilt following a devastating fire in 1834, visitors begin their tour in one of the oldest parts of the building – Westminster Hall – which was originally built in 1097. The hammer-beam roof was constructed in the late 1300’s under Richard II. This enormous hall served as the law courts until the 19th century, as well as holding government offices and early meetings of Parliament.

Westminster Hall

This hall is where King Charles I and St. Thomas More were tried and convicted, leading to their executions. It was used for coronation banquets until the 19th century, but since the early 20th century, the hall has been used for official lying in-state of a deceased monarch or important member of the royal family. Lots and lots of history here.

Our tour guide also provided a general history of how Parliament developed over time, from the king’s advisory council to today’s House of Commons and House of Lords. She described the rituals and symbolism associated with the annual State Opening of Parliament. This video shows a bit of the pomp and ceremony that surrounds the Queen’s speech outlining each year’s governmental agenda.

I’m planning to return to Parliament in the near future to observe some debates in the House of Commons and the House of Lords.

Michael and I also visited the Tate Britain on Saturday, which is located close to the Houses of Parliament. This art museum’s focus is British art since 1500.

Entrance to Tate Britain art museum

My favorite piece of the day:

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse 1888

In other news, I’ve started another knitting project – a pair of socks. I’ve never knitted socks before, so we’ll see… But I love the color of the yarn – a rainbow of blues! And our amaryllis is getting ready to bloom in a burst of red! How appropriately political.

I was getting very tired of the constant London cloudiness, but the past few days have been “postcard days” as you can see from this new panorama that I took of the River Thames from the Waterloo Bridge on Friday.

Before coming to London, I bought Frommer’s 24 Great Walks in London. This beautiful weather inspired me to do two of these walks.

On Friday, I did walk #9 that encompasses Covent Garden and parts of the Theater District, ending up down by the River Thames near Charing Cross. After winding past two historic theaters, the Theatre Royal and the Lyceum, the tour took me to Somerset House on the banks of the Thames, right by Waterloo Bridge.

Today, Somerset House is an arts and cultural center. One wing also houses part of King’s College London. The building’s courtyard contains fountains during the warmer months and an ice-skating rink during the winter. Somerset House is also the home of London Fashion Week.

Somerset House courtyard

The history of Somerset House is also quite interesting. This part of London was always a fashionable area in which to live. In the early 1500s, bishops and nobility owned nearby mansions. After Henry VIII died in 1547, his son, Edward VI, was only 9 years old and too young to rule. As a result, the kingdom was ruled by the Regency Council, which was headed by Edward’s ambitious uncle, Edward Seymour. Uncle Ed decided he needed a great palace and set upon building the first grand Somerset House to suit his high rank. Using some of the stonework from the demolition of churches and monasteries under the Dissolution of the Monasteries, he had the first Somerset House built. Unfortunately, he was unable to really enjoy his new palace because he was eventually accused of treason and beheaded at Tower Hill in 1552.

Following Edward Seymour’s death, the palace was used by the Royal Family, including Elizabeth I and several other queens. Oliver Cromwell also died here. Eventually, by 1775, the Tudor palace fell into ruins and was demolished bit by bit as today’s Somerset House was built.

On Saturday, Michael and I did Frommer’s walk #11 through Clerkenwell, a neighborhood that is very close to our flat. We especially enjoyed discovering St. John’s Gate and the Museum of the Order of St. John. This order is related to the Knights of Malta. We managed to catch the last part of a tour conducted by an entertaining costumed guide.

St. John's Gate, Clerkwell

The Order of St. John has a rich history. All that survives today from the original priory is this gate house and the nearby Priory Church of St. John. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries, some of the priory’s stone work was used to build Somerset House. Over the years, the gate house was used for many different purposes before the modern Order was reinstated under Queen Victoria in 1888. For example, during Shakespeare’s time, the gate house was the office for the Master of Revels. Shakespeare had to come here to get licenses to put on his plays. It is believed that several of his plays were rehearsed here. Later, a publisher and a tavern also occupied this site.

As he described the history of the priory and the Order of St. John, the guide took us to the 12th century crypt of the church, one of the earliest Norman crypts that still exists in England.

12th century crypt of Priory Church of St. John

Saturday afternoon, Michael and I headed down to “legal” London. We wandered around the Royal Courts of Justice and Lincoln’s Inn. Then we had a quick look around Sir John Soane’s Museum, an eclectic collection that is hard to describe. After dinner, we caught a bus up to King’s Place to hear a concert. Great and busy day!!

Every summer while Queen Elizabeth is in residence in Scotland, the State Rooms at Buckingham Palace are open to the public. This is the final week of this year’s opening, so I managed to get in. What opulence! I couldn’t take pictures inside, but you can do a virtual tour of some of the rooms here: Buckingham Palace State Rooms. It’s hard to imagine what it’s like to live in a place like this.

One big draw of the tour this year was a display of Kate Middleton’s wedding dress. Apparently many visitors were drawn to the State Room tour just to see the dress. The lace work was beautiful and was appliqued at the Royal School of Needlework at Hampton Court Palace. Her earrings, shoes, a recreated bouquet and wedding cake were also part of the display. Each flower used for decoration, whether in the lace, on the cake, or in the bouquet, was carefully chosen for its symbolism. For example, the flowers in the lace represented different parts of the United Kingdom.

Buckingham Palace is a popular tourist site, so I heard many different languages spoken. Lots of German visitors today. I was also approached by two different groups of Dutch students (about middle school aged), who had an assignment for their English class to approach individuals and ask them several questions. One question was, “What do you think about when you hear ‘Holland’?” I replied tulips and wooden shoes. Then they had to take pictures of me sitting with them. It was really cute. The two girls were very engaged, and the boys just tried to do the minimum amount of talking.

In the past two days, I’ve toured two historic palaces, The Tower of London on Friday and Hampton Court Palace with Michael on Saturday. London is dripping with history, and the stories associated with these palaces and their royal (and not so royal) residents are fascinating.

The White Castle, Tower of London

The Tower of London tour by one of the beefeaters was especially entertaining horrifying with stories of blood and gore, especially during King Henry VIII’s reign. But the Tower dates back to the end of 1066 when it was founded by William the Conqueror. The original part of the fortress is the White Tower, which served as a royal residence and a prison. Later expansions brought in more defensive features as well as other purposes, such as a royal mint. Today, the Tower houses the Crown Jewels, an incredibly impressive display of wealth. Photographs are not permitted in the building, but you can see them in this video clip:

While I was at the Tower, I saw a group of students with unusual school uniforms. The students said they attended a boarding school, and this was their uniform. It looked just like this painting, though the girls I saw wore lacy cravats. Their outer coat was floor length and they also wore yellow stockings. I was thinking Hogwarts and wondered how Visitation or Interlochen students would enjoy wearing these uniforms.

On Saturday, Michael and I took the train out to Hampton Court Palace. This palace originally belonged to Cardinal Wolsey, an important advisor to King Henry VIII. When Wolsey fell out of favor with the King, the palace passed on to Henry VIII as one of his many palaces. Later, William III and his wife Mary tried to rebuild and renovate the palace in the style of Versailles, but that project was never completed. This place is so huge, we didn’t get the chance to see everything. There are audio tours available, but the format (a pretend servant taking you around on Henry VIII’s wedding day) tends to get tedious and I wanted more straightforward information.

The gardens were especially beautiful. I’ve posted some photos on my Flickr account (you can click on the photos in the right column to see them), but I also put together another panorama, a little better than my first one.

Panorama of Hampton Court Gardens

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